Bob Morris @ Jul 31st 2007 11:49 - Category: Unfiled ;
A commercial fish farm in Honduras cooks the fish leftover, adding ingredients to produce biodiesel, which they use to run their trucks and buses. Production is 300,000 gallons annually and costs $1 less per gallon than fossil fuel.
And the fish guts don’t get dumped in a landfill either.
Bob Morris @ Jul 31st 2007 11:11 - Category: Wind turbines ;
DJ @ Jul 31st 2007 09:14 - Category: Anti-war ;
As we’ve seen in the discussion of the Iraq War, actual solutions to conflict are hard to come by. “Stay the course” or “Bring’em home” may make great slogans, but they don’t solve anything. The roots of a conflict (on both sides ) go much deeper than what either side says the shooting is about. And without recognizing the actual causes, no solutions can be implemented.
To complicate matters, applying the conventional paradigm when applied to post-modern war results in the conclusion that combatants do not act rationally: why do they keep using tactics that do not achieve victory? If the combatants do not act rationally, peace is virtually impossible.
The paradigm I have developed, on the other hand, suggests that the combatants do act rationally: that if the tactics they use do not achieve victory, they must serve some other goal. If the combatants act rationally, then under certain circumstances they can be convinced to act differently, and peace is at least possible. But it’s still not easy.
Let’s suppose we accept that the combatants act rationally, and we explore and discover the roots of the conflict. There is no magic solution that will cause people to stop killing each other. A quick read through John Paul Lederach’s “The Moral Imagination suggests that solutions are almost as diverse as conflicts. But solutions exist.
There are some basic principles to building peace that maximize the likelyhood of success. They’ve been stated in several ways in several cultures. I’ve chosen for this post a selection from the official guidelines for peacemaking of the Mennonnite Church, which is well written and simple to understand. (I have taken the liberty of removing the biblical references; see the link for the original, officially-adopted version):
Go directly to those with whom we disagree; avoid behind-the-back criticism.
Go in gentleness, patience and humility. Place the problem between us at neither doorstep and own our part in the conflict instead of pointing out the others’.
Listen carefully, summarize and check out what is heard before responding. Seek as much to understand as to be understood.
Suspend judgments, avoid labeling, end name calling, discard threats, and act in a nondefensive, nonreactive way.
Work through the disagreements constructively.
* Identify issues, interests, and needs of both (rather than take positions).
* Generate a variety of options for meeting both parties’ needs (rather than defending one’s own way).
* Evaluate options by how they meet the needs and satisfy the interests of all sides (not one side’s values).
* Collaborate in working out a joint solution (so both sides gain, both grow and win).
* Cooperate with the emerging agreement (accept the possible, not demand your ideal).
* Reward each other for each step forward, toward agreement (celebrate mutuality).
Be firm in our commitment to seek a mutual solution…
As I said, these are only one possible statement of the principles, though from a well-respected church with a centuries-old commitment to peace. In our work, we used similar principles as articulated by Sharif Abdullah, one of our team members, based on his own experience of conflict reolution here in the States.
One of our fundamental premises is that we cannot end conflict by creating more conflict– an adversarial approach to peace is doomed to fail. This doesn’t mean we never propose controversial ideas. But when we do, and indeed with everything we do, it must be done in a spirit of inclusivity, inviting all parties to participate. Only then can we transcend the conflict process, in which every party tries to grab power for itself, and address the needs to the whole from which the conflict stems.
Bob Morris @ Jul 31st 2007 00:23 - Category: Credit crisis ;
More collateral damage from the mortgage implosion. On Friday, American Home Mortgage announced they would be unable to make scheduled dividend payments due Saturday because of margin calls.
Trading in the stock was halted Monday as the company remained silent about their financial condition. It appears probable they are facing bankruptcy, and there may not be much left but a worthless husk.
They have 7400 employees. Thus, thousands of them no doubt will be jobless soon. And unable to make their own mortgage payments.
Bob Morris @ Jul 31st 2007 00:15 - Category: Unfiled ;
Bruce Schneier interviews Kip Hawley, in part 1 of a 5-part interview. At least Hawley has a sense of humor.
Bruce Schneier: By today’s rules, I can carry on liquids in quantities of three ounces or less, unless they’re in larger bottles. But I can carry on multiple three-ounce bottles. Or a single larger bottle with a non-prescription medicine label, like contact lens fluid. It all has to fit inside a one-quart plastic bag, except for that large bottle of contact lens fluid. And if you confiscate my liquids, you’re going to toss them into a large pile right next to the screening station — which you would never do if anyone thought they were actually dangerous.
Can you please convince me there’s not an Office for Annoying Air Travelers making this sort of stuff up?
Kip Hawley: Screening ideas are indeed thought up by the Office for Annoying Air Travelers and vetted through the Directorate for Confusion and Complexity, and then we review them to insure that there are sufficient unintended irritating consequences so that the blogosphere is constantly fueled.
AHA! So it is a deliberate conspiracy to make air plane an exceedingly large PITB.
Imagine for a moment that TSA people are somewhat bright, and motivated to protect the public with the least intrusion into their lives, not to mention travel themselves. How might you engineer backwards from that premise to get to three ounces and a baggie?
While you might not agree with all they do, the interview at least explains reasonably well why TSA thinks these procedures are needed.
Bob Morris @ Jul 30th 2007 19:40 - Category: Unfiled ;
The new British PM, Gordon Brown, has instructed his ministers to not use the phrase “war on terror” or to use “Muslim” in conjunction with the terrorism fight.
Instead, he rightfully wants it to be a law enforcement effort. Good.
Tip: Buddhagem at The Blue Voice, who adds
If you want to minimize the possibility of future attacks we might kick back on the hateful rhetoric, throw our resources behind police work–not the military–and end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Bob Morris @ Jul 30th 2007 19:08 - Category: Unfiled ;
Hospitals and drugstores often have large amounts of expired and unused pills. Rather than dump them in a landfill where they could get into the water supply, Capital Returns incinerates them, creating energy in the process.
Bob Morris @ Jul 30th 2007 00:14 - Category: Socialism ;
While I espouse socialism, I’ve also been buying puts on homebuilder stocks. Contradiction? Maybe, but we do live in a capitalist world.
Puts are stock options. They give the buyer the right but not the obligation to sell 100 shares of the underlying stock at a set price. If the stock price drops, the value of the put increases. The opposite of a put is a call, which gives the right to buy 100 shares at a set price. If the stock goes up, the value of the call increases. Hardly anyone ever actually buys or sells the underlying, instead they just sell the option which hopefully has increased in value.
Those new to options generally get confused by the above, which is more than understandable. What comes next usually confuses even more. You can sell options without owning them, hoping the price drops so you can buy them back later at a lower price and pocket the difference. (You don’t actually own them when you buy them back, this just zeros out the transaction.) All this can get quite rarefied, as in buying options on futures on an index, as can be done with the S&P 500 index.
Homebuilder stocks are in a death spiral now, and this will be a continuing trend for months and months to come. Thus, buying puts on them can be profitable. (Note: options are tricky little beasts, do not attempt it unless a) you know what you’re doing and b) are prepared to lose the entire investment. The value of an option can double in a few days, and can also go to nearly zero.)
Would a socialist world have a stock market? Dunno. Would this be a good or bad thing? Clearly, our financial markets are often out of control, as the subprime debacle shows. Plus, US financial markets demand that companies produce better earnings every quarter and this puts an undue emphasis on short-term profit at the expense of the long-term good.
Companies issue stock, take the money and do something with it, yet we saw how the IPO process was abused during the dot com boom, with lots of worthless companies being pushed on the market. The original investors and the investment banks, those selling during the IPO, got rich. Those buying were generally considerably less fortunate. A tiny few got even wealthier at the expense of the rest of us.
China, while at least nominally socialist, has a stock market. So does communist Vietnam. I wonder, are their markets more managed, so as to prevent obvious abuse and exploitation? Probably not. And if they were strictly managed that does leave the possibility that those doing the managing could be profiting on the side.
Capitalism is organic, it just grows and sprouts. Socialism has a managed economy. What we need, and what the various planetary economies are heading towards, are localized hybrid mixes of both.
Bob Morris @ Jul 30th 2007 00:09 - Category: Wind turbines ;
The wind turbine floats on a magnetic cushion with the aid of a linear synchronous motor. This technology eliminates all friction and delivers maximum wind energy directly to the power generators. Since the Maglev wind turbine blades capture all of the wind, it is possible to generate electricity for less than one cent per kilowatt hour.
Bob Morris @ Jul 29th 2007 17:24 - Category: Unfiled ;
“I guess if there is anything to be gained from the senseless deaths of my beautiful family, it’s for us all to go forward with the inclination to live with a faith that embodies action, help a neighbor, fight for a cause, love your family.” Live well, he told them. And, he said, “spread the work of these three wonderful women.”
– Dr. William Petit, speaking at the funeral service for his wife and two daughters. At least two were raped and all three were murdered in Cheshire CT in a home invasion robbery. He was brutally beaten, and the house burned down.
At memorial services, people don’t clap. But when Petit finished, applause burst out. The people showered him with applause, loud and long, hundreds of people promising that in that moment, he wasn’t alone.
Bob Morris @ Jul 29th 2007 10:34 - Category: Wind turbines ;
Bob Morris @ Jul 29th 2007 00:21 - Category: Unfiled ;
Moody’s chief economist said if there are more hedge fund blowups like at Bear Stearns, the effects on global financial markets will be severe.
He said economic modelling showed that sub-prime mortgage delinquencies would peak in mid-2008 and remain close to the peak well in to 2009.
The reason I keep banging on this theme is because it affects us all. Credit is already getting harder to obtain. Interest rates will continue rising. One of the driving forces in the US economy has been consumer money coming from home equity lines of credit, a source that has now dried up. That means stores will have declines in sales which in turn means job reductions. Fred at Home Depot gets laid off even though he might not even know what subprime mortgages are, making him an innocent victim of a seemingly arcane financial implosion.
Bizarrely, some leftists get almost happy about this kind of thing. Such a crisis of capitalism will surely signal the collapse of the system, they hope. Maybe. But while the current system seems based on greed and fueled by fraud, and certainly needs reform or replacement, we are talking about real people here. Homes lost. Companies shutting down. Bankruptcies. Scarcely a cause for celebration. And it’s hardly a given that a pissed-off working class struggling with debt will break towards the left, they could just as easily go to the right.
Let’s say Monica just got laid off as a waitress at a restaurant catering to a business crowd who are no longer coming because of economic slowdown, and that she and her husband are now in danger of losing their house. The Left needs to be there with an understandable explanation of how our rapacious economic system created such a catastrophe for her.
PS And as DJ comments, find ways to help her!
Bob Morris @ Jul 29th 2007 00:14 - Category: Uncategorized Tags: Venezuela;
From the Just Foreign Policy listserv
Hours after a military coup overthrew the democratically elected government in Venezuela in 2002, the International Monetary Fund declared its readiness to work with the coup government. How was this decision reached? What did they know, and when did they know it? Members of Congress are trying to find out.
Sign the petition for Congress to investigate.
Bob Morris @ Jul 28th 2007 17:38 - Category: Unfiled ;
Neo-Nazis in Russia recently attacked a sleeping camp of anti-nuclear protesters, mostly anarchist greens, beating them so severely that one died and others had broken legs. The police, to put in mildly, are less than helpful to those who were beaten while lying in sleeping bags.
The fascists attacked again at a fundraiser concert for those beaten, putting a 16 yar old in the hospital.
Given that Putin now has his own private army of teenage thugs, excuse me, “youth brigade“, one wonders just how random these attacks are.
Bob Morris @ Jul 28th 2007 00:23 - Category: Credit crisis ;
Class warfare exists in the world of subprime mortgages and bonds, yes it does. Let me explain.
Thousands of mortgages get packaged into a bond. The various risk levels of the mortgages are separated into what are called tranches. The top tranche, the AAA level, is presumably the highest quality while the lower levels are much riskier and more toxic.
You didn’t think they’d stop there, did you? A CDO (Collateralized Debt Obligation) is a debt instrument comprised of possibly hundreds of tranches from any number of bonds. Through the miracle of modern financial fraud alchemy, the top tranche in a CDO may appear pristine and unsullied, even if it too is toxic.
When the pyramid of debt and leverage starts to collapse - what we’re seeing now - then the class warfare comes into play. If it looks like not everyone will get their money back, the terms of a CDO generally dictate that the AAA level gets all the money first. Thus holders of AAA tranches might actually want the CDO to get downgraded because then they get first dibs to all the income. Truly, there is no honor among thieves.
(There are also bizarre debt instruments called CDO squared which are, you got it, CDOs of CDOs. But wait, there’s more! Yes, CDO cubed, CDOs of CDOs of CDOs.)
Bob Morris @ Jul 28th 2007 00:08 - Category: Credit crisis ;
That’s not a misprint.
The foreclosure rate for all Southern California was up 725% over the previous year quarter. It’s happening across the board, for pricey homes as well as small ones. Apparently well-off folks who could have gone with a 30 fixed mortgage went the variable rate route instead.
We are still on the leading edge of subprime resets. Many more foreclosures are coming. This aren’t abstract statistics but real people whose lives are being turned upside down.
Bob Morris @ Jul 27th 2007 16:30 - Category: Unfiled ;
FBI Director contradicts Gonzales; Dem senators call for special prosecutor
Workers kidnapped to build Green Zone embassy. US Congress testimony.
Fox News attacks liberal bloggers. Director Robert Greenwald fights back with a video and says let’s call Fox advertisers because they”probably have no idea the kind of hatred their money is supporting.”
The polarization, the collapse of support for the president, an increasingly unpopular and unwinnable war, special prosecutors - yes, this is how it was during the beginning of the end for Nixon.
Bob Morris @ Jul 27th 2007 16:17 - Category: Unfiled ;
He’s an affectionate, cuddly cat and everyone likes him, however …
Bob Morris @ Jul 27th 2007 12:36 - Category: Unfiled ;
New evidence shows that Tillman was killed with three M-16 bullets to the head from 10 yards away. It’s difficult to see how that could be accidental friendly fire.
There’s more- a deliberate coverup, no evidence of enemy fire, and Tillman snapping at a comrade to stop “sniveling,” moments before he was killed.
(”Fragging” is a term from the Vietnam War, where US soldiers shot their own troops, usually officers.)
DJ @ Jul 27th 2007 12:19 - Category: Anti-war, Imperialism ;
Wali Jan Sabri, a parliamentarian from Helmand, Afghanistan, claims that NATO bombing raids killed 50 - 60 civilians yesterday.
In response, Lieutenant-Colonel Charlie Mayo, spokesman for the British forces in Helmand, said this:
“Because the Taliban don’t wear uniforms like us, as soon as they are killed, they are called civilians, the key is are they male or female and if they are male, what age are they?”
In other words any male between certain ages is by definition Taliban.
While this is arguably a reasonable policy for colonial-style administration, it’s counter-productive in post-modern warfare because it plays right into the hands of the militants. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy: when all young men are considered militants and therefore subject to indiscriminate killing, they are likely to become militants.
UK is not the only military to adopt such counterproductive policies. When I went to Batticaloa, Sri Lanka in 1998 while the city was under siege by the LTTE, I found similar absurdities. The relatives of civilians killed by the government were eligible for compensation. But if they claimed their relative was killed by the government, they would get no compensation because “the government only kills LTTE” so if they were killed by the government they were clearly LTTE. The relatives would therefore claim the victim was killed “in crossfire,” whereupon they would get their compensation. The government, meanwhile, would report the deaths as caused by the LTTE, because “the government doesn’t kill civilians.” Thus, hundreds of government-caused deaths were attributed to LTTE– and the populace was systematically alienated from the occupying gornment forces.
Bob Morris @ Jul 27th 2007 07:48 - Category: Credit crisis ;
Four hedge funds in Australia have banned withdrawals even though they have no subprime exposure and are not margined. They are doing it to protect themselves from a “ripple effect” from the US subprime market.
Bob Morris @ Jul 27th 2007 00:23 - Category: Unfiled ;
Luis Rodriguez, former gang member and author of Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A., has been working many years to get youth out of gangs.
His approach is to provide resources and mentorship, and then let the youth create the organizations.
There is a role for adults, mentors, and elders. Our role is as guides, teachers, helping bring resources, structures, and options for what the youth need. However, unlike many “youth programming” going on these days, it’s not about adults deciding for youth what they should do.
This is not only the “right thing” to do, it’s also the most effective. A study by the Justice Policy Institute is illuminating.
The study compared the levels of violence in three major cities–LA, Chicago, and New York City. NYC, with much more people, had the lowest crime rates among youth and much lower gang problems. Chicago and LA are known as the most violent gang cities, although most of what policy makers do in those cities is predicated on suppression. NYC has a myriad approach to gangs; they have brought services, jobs, treatment, schooling, and other similar aspects to bear over just police and suppressive tactics.
When police act like Robocop thugs, as in L.A., crime and violence gets worse. If a city provides actual resources for youth to get out of gangs, like NYC is doing, things get better. Imagine that.
The study concludes
Gang members account for a relatively small share of crime in most jurisdictions.
The public face of the gang problem is black and Latino, but whites make up the largest group of adolescent gang members.
Gang control policies make the process of leaving more difficult by continuing to target former members after their gang affiliation has ended.
Heavy-handed suppression efforts can increase gang cohesion and police-community tensions, and they have a poor track record when it comes to reducing crime and violence.
Their recommendations
Expand the use of evidenced-based practice to reduce youth crime.
Promote jobs, education, and healthy communities, and lower barriers to the reintegration into society of former gang members.
Redirect resources from failed gang enforcement efforts to proven public safety strategies.
Rodriguez is thoughtful, committed, and has been at this for years, without much money or resources either. His blog is always worth reading.
Bob Morris @ Jul 27th 2007 00:15 - Category: Unfiled ;
So says Craig Murray
In Afghanistan. UK and US soldiers are dying to protect the puppet government, yet -
The four largest players in the heroin business are all senior members of the Afghan government – the government that our soldiers are fighting and dying to protect.
And certainly many others, governmental or otherwise, are making lots of money off this too. Remember, the Taliban wiped out opium production, but it came back big-time after the US and UK invaded. What a coincidence.
Bob Morris @ Jul 26th 2007 00:17 - Category: Credit crisis ;
Major investment banks this week failed to find investors for billions of dollars in loans for the buyouts of Chrysler and the British firm Alliance Boots. Rather than having have made a “bridge loan” until they found investors, they must now carry these risky loans on their own books. This is mockingly known as a “pier loan”, as in “a long walk off a short pier.”
This is a direct result of the metastasizing subprime debacle. Credit is getting harder to get. Investors don’t want risky stuff anymore.
Countrywide Financial blew up Tuesday, announcing terrible earnings. The CEO said “Home price depreciation at levels not seen since the Great Depression,” and that prime mortgages, not just subprime are in trouble.
“Delinquencies on subprime loans widened to nearly 24% in the latest quarter, Countrywide Financial Corp., the nation’s largest mortgage lender, said Tuesday. But the shocker was that delinquencies on prime home equity loans more than doubled to 4.6% in the most recent quarter from 1.8% a year ago, giving the lie to the notion that the problems in the mortgage market could be confined just to the subprime sector, which caters to those with impaired credit. Apparently even well-qualified borrowers aren’t making their payments on time.”
Yes, it’s been quite a orgy of greed, deception and lies, now it’s all disintegrating. Unfortunately, We The People will be hurt by this seemingly distant and abstract financial implosion too.
Even those with plenty of money are saying the greedfest must end. From Bill Gross, Managing Director of PIMCO, they manage $687 billion in assets, mostly fixed income.
Now is the time, long overdue in fact, to admit that for the rich, for the mega-rich of this country, that enough is never enough, and it is therefore incumbent upon government to rectify today’s imbalances. “The way our society equalizes incomes” argues ex-American Airlines CEO Bob Crandall, “is through much higher taxes than we have today. There is no other way.” Well said, Bob. Enough said, Bob. Because enough, when it comes to the gilded 21st century rich, has clearly become too much.
Bill Gross continues, wondering how, since the ratings process for bonds is so obviously broken, that many are asking, what other ratings have they screwed up?
To be blunt, they seem to be thinking that if Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s have done such a lousy job of rating subprime structures, how can the market have confidence that they’re not repeating the same structural, formulaic, mistake with CLOs and CDOs? That growing lack of confidence – more so than the defaults of two Bear Stearns hedge funds and the threat of more to come – has frozen future lending and backed up the market for high yield new issues such that it resembles a constipated owl: absolutely nothing is moving.
How bad is it getting out there?
Between January and March, delinquencies for Alt-A rose by 17%, to 3.05% of loans, while subprime delinquencies rose by about 3.5%, to 14.83%… If Alt-A follows the path of subprime, there will be more forced sellers of U.S. houses.
- Ok, so what are we really talking about here with these so-called CDOs?
- CDOs were created in 1987 by bankers at Drexel Burnham Lambert.
- Wait a minute.
- Did you say Drexel Burnham Lambert?
- Isn’t that the same firm that was driven into bankruptcy in 1990 due to illegal trading in junk bonds driven by Drexel employee Michael Milken?
- And did you say they were created in 1987?
- The same year the market crashed?
- And wasn’t the 1980s known as the “Decade of Greed”?
- Yes, yes, yes and yes.
- So let’s see if we got this right.
- Today, in 2007, the market for securities that were created in the “Decade of Greed” by a firm that was only a short time later forced into bankruptcy due to illegal trading in high-risk bonds is grinding to a halt?
Capitalism is having one of its cyclical crises now. Boom-bust. It’s built into capitalism. When people like Bill Gross and Warren Buffet of the world say higher taxes on the wealthy are needed and the disparity in incomes must be leveled out, then you know there’s a war going on in the ruling class.
PS For those interest, CalculatedRisk has an excellent, detailed primer on the convoluted world of mortgage bonds and CDO’s.
Bob Morris @ Jul 26th 2007 00:11 - Category: Unfiled ;
A Mexican-Chinese businessman accused of aiding in the making of tons of methamphetamine in Mexico has been arrested in Maryland. Authorities found $207 million in cash in his Mexico home recently, and he said $150 million of that belonged to the ruling party of Mexico which he was forced to store under penalty of death.
I’m guessing there are whole levels to this story yet to surface…
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